Swimming pool heater and attic chiller

ABSTRACT

An forced-air to liquid heat exchanger is used in or adjacent to the attic space of an unmodified residential or commercial building to transfer the latent solar gained heat to a swimming pool, while cooling the attic space and thereby lowering the energy cost of cooling the living space of the said building. The roof material serves as a solar collector, while the attic space provides a temporary storage medium. The present invention allows the transfer of this solar energy to a swimming pool in a very low cost method. The present invention can lower the building summer cooling utility costs by cooling the attic space of the building, while very inexpensively raising the swimming pool temperature and extending the usability season of the swimming pool.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a swimming pool heating system, and in particular to an expandable, modular, swimming pool heating system for installation in or adjacent to the attic of a house or similar structure.

2. Discussion of the Prior Art

In many climates, it is usually necessary to heat the water in swimming pools to allow for comfortable experience or extend the usable season. Ambient air temperatures during the day can be comfortable, but night temperatures often allow a pool to cool well below the comfort level. Thus, it is often necessary to heat the pool and raise the water temperature to a comfortable level.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,770, issued to E. G. Palmer on May 14, 1991 discloses a system including a heat exchanger mounted in the attic of a house. Swimming pool water is circulated from the pool through the heat exchanger where it is heated, and then returned to the pool. In the Palmer system, the heat exchanger is mounted in a casing, which includes an air inlet and an air outlet in close proximity to each other. Cool air discharged through the outlet is re-circulated to the inlet which reduces the efficiency of the unit. As a result, much of the hot air stored in attic is not recovered by the Palmer unit. Additionally, the Palmer unit is a somewhat large assembly, which is too large to pass through the standard opening into most attics without modification to the opening.

U.S. Pat No. 6,962,150, issues to Davis Allen Booth on Nov. 25, 2003 discloses a heat exchanger unit mounted in the attic of a house. This system differs from the Palmer system in that the dimensions are slightly smaller and it includes two relatively small flexible ducts routed to remote areas of the attic to prevent rapid recirculation of the same air.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention greatly improve the heat transfer capability, simplify installation, and improve system leak safety by improved ducting, unit placement flexibility, fan placement, and provide a simplified method for transfer heat to the swimming pool water by providing a simple, modular system for mounting in or near the attic and effectively use the large amount of the heat available in the attic.

The invention relates to a modular swimming pool water heating system comprising an air to water heat exchange unit with an inlet manifold introducing filtered pool water and an outlet for returning the warmed water to swimming pool; Heat exchanger is mounted in or near the attic space; coupled to the heat exchanger on the upwind side is a fan shroud and attached high temp fan and motor; upwind of the said fan and motor is a flexible duct routed to or near the peak of the attic as to draw the hottest air available in the said attic; heat exchanger is mounted over safety drip pan draining to exterior of building.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is described below in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is schematic block diagram of a system for heating swimming pool water is accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is an schematic view of one side of a modular heat transfer unit used in the system of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a frontal view of the heat transfer unit of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a rear view of the heat transfer unit of FIGS. 2 and 3;

FIG. 5 is a partly sectioned top view of a heat transfer unit assembly of FIGS. 2 to 4;

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the heat transfer unit of FIG. 5;

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to FIG. 1, the system of the present invention is designed to heat water from a swimming pool 1. Swimming pool water routed from the skimmer and main drain of the pool flows through a pipe 2, which is preferably a PVC pipe of at least 1.5″ internal diameter using a conventional pump 3 having at least one horsepower. The water passes through a pipe 4 to the pool filter 5. From the filter 5, the water flows through a pipe 6 and bypass valve 7 and valve 8 used in conjunction. When valve 7 is open water flows through pipe 9 to the heat transfer coils 10 returning through a pipe 11, valve 8 to the pipe 12, and is returned to the pool 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, the heat transfer unit indicated generally at 13 is mounted in or immediately adjacent to an attic. The heat transfer unit 13 includes a plenum 15 incorporating a mounting flange 16 for attaching the fan assembly, a fan assembly 14 used to pull hot attic air through the flexible duct 17 and slightly pressurize the plenum 15 and subsequently force the air to flow evenly through the heat transfer coils 10. Cooled attic air is discharged from heat transfer coils 10 into attic or space otherwise mounted. An elongated flexible duct 17 is attached to the inlet side of the fan assembly 14 and routed to the peak of the said attic for collection of the warmest attic air available. The flexible duct 17, which can be of variable length to extend a distance from the fan assembly 14 is used to draw in hot air from the peak of the attic remote from the heat transfer unit 13 providing for flexibility in placement of the heat transfer unit for convenience of installation and safety in case of heat transfer unit 13 leakage. Extending the flexible duct some distance from the air discharge via the heat transfer coils 10 prevents cooled attic air from being immediately recirculated through the inlet of the flexible duct 17 raising the efficiency from prior art. The fan placement prior to the heat exchanger increases fan performance and efficiency by placing the load on pressure side rather than vacuum side as in prior art.

As best shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the plenum 15, which is formed of fiberglass, is defined by a fan assembly mounting flange 18, and a heat transfer coil seal 19 for the mounting of a heat transfer coil 10 to the plenum 15.

A drain tube 20 is connected to a safety drain pan 21 placed below the heat transfer unit 13. The drain tube 20 extends from the safety drain pan 21 out of the structure where the heat transfer unit 13 is mounted to the outdoors for draining water in the event of a leak on the heat transfer coils 10 or the pipes immediately adjacent to the heat transfer unit 13.

Air enters the heat transfer unit 13 via the flexible duct 17, then via the fan assembly 14, than via the plenum 15. Air enters the heat transfer coils 10 and is discharged opposite the plenum 15 into the attic space or area unit is otherwise mounted. The fan assembly 14 (FIGS. 2,3,5 and 6) includes a cylindrical casing with pre drilled holes at the outflow end for attaching to the fan assembly mounting flange 18 incorporated in the plenum 15. Bolts and nuts are used to connect the fan assembly mounting flange 18 to the fan assembly 14. An electric motor 22 (FIG. 5) is mounted on an annular hub (not shown) in the center of the fan assembly 14. The electric motor 22 shaft is attached directly to fan blades 23 to facilitate air movement through the heat transfer unit 13.

Referring to FIGS. 1,4,5, and 6, the heat transfer unit 13 includes forced air fan assembly 14, the plenum 15 with fan assembly mounting flange 18 and heat transfer coil seal 19, and the heat transfer coil 10. Water flowing through the pipe 9 (FIG. 1) from the pool is introduced into the heat transfer coils 10 via the intake manifold 24 (FIG. 6). Water transfers across the heat transfer coil 10, and exits into the outlet manifold 25. The outlet manifold 25 is connected to pipe 11 (FIG. 1) for returning heated water to the swimming pool 1 resulting in heat exchange between the hot attic air and the swimming pool water passing through heat exchanger. Water passes through the heat exchanger coils only once per cycle, resulting in the maximum temperature differential between the water and hot attic air flowing across the heat transfer coils and allowing for a maximum extraction of energy from the attic space unlike prior art the recycles the water several times through the heat transfer coils gaining a higher temperature rise, but at a lower BTU transfer rate due to lower temperature differential on each subsequent pass through the heat transfer coils.

The heat transfer coil 10 and plenum 15 are designed to fit through attic openings having conventional dimensions. The heat transfer coil 10 and plenum 15 can be placed in an attic separately and assembled in the attic or adjacent space otherwise mounted and then attached to the flexible duct 17 also introduced and mounted separately in the attic.

In a typical system, the heat transfer coil is 28″ long by 20″ high by 3″ deep which allows access to most attic hatch openings. The plenum 15 is 28″ long by 20″ high by 14″ deep. The Fan assembly 14 is 16″ diameter by 12″ long. Duct 17 is secured to the fan assembly 14 using nylon draw tight connectors. The duct 17 is stretched out and positioned as near as possible to the attic peak as to draw the hottest air possible into the heat transfer unit 13 via the fan assembly 14. The heat transfer coil 10 is a custom designed copper tube and fin assembly with dimensions described above.

REFERENCES CITED

U.S. Patent Documents References Cited [Referenced By] U.S. Patent Documents 4,051,999 October 1977 Granger et al. 4,241,725 December 1980 Emon et al. 4,378,787 April 1983 Fleischmann 4,502,467 March 1985 Smith 5,014,770 May 1991 Palmer 5,452,710 September 1995 Palmer 5,632,677 May 1997 Elkins 5,975,192 November 1999 Moratalla et al. 6,126,540 October 2000 Janu et al. 

1. A modular swimming pool water heating system comprising a fan shroud and drip pan for mounting in or near the attic of a building; a heat exchange unit mounted to said fan shroud and used for introducing swimming pool water into said heat exchange unit; a ducted fan unit for mounting on fan shroud for pushing air into said fan shroud and through said heat exchange unit; flexible duct for connection to said inlet of said ducted fan for receiving warm attic air from the peak and hottest locations of the attic and feeding said air to said fan shroud and heat exchanger for transfer to the pool water circulating through the heat exchanger, thus transferring the attic heat to the connected swimming pool.
 2. The system of claim 1 is easily adaptable to commercially available solar heater controllers, of which are not covered or discussed further in this claim. 